NeNe Leakes turned the tables on Andy Cohen in a special segment of Watch What Happens Live. Nene got Andy to confess who has the say in casting the Real Housewives, whether he only hires Housewives with money and are heading for bankruptcy and so much more. Andy even slams the other "wives" style copycat ripoff shows.
Andy reveals that his favorite Real Housewives franchise is "the one that I'm watching; the one I'm screening. I go all over the map. Atlanta makes me laugh the hardest. It's consistently the funniest, although new York makes me [laugh] too."
The most fashionable franchise is Beverly Hills. "I think Beverly Hills, New York and Atlanta have the most fashion." What do you like about BH? "I like seeing their houses. The weather is always great and they're always outside. And it's all roses and hair and.."
NeNe asks, do you have a hand in hiring and firing housewives? "I do". NeNe squawks, "So if anything ever happens to me, I need to come for you? What! are you kidding me?" Andy asks if she seriously knew that or not and she swears she had NO idea.
On what he looks for in a new Housewife. "Someone who is willing to be open, live their life fully in front of the camera. Someone with a point of view. Someone who has a sense of humor or at least, funny or humorous or different in some way. Someone who will fit in with the group and hopefully someone who knows people in the group and has a natural connection to them. They have something to say, they won't be run over and will open their lives up to the camera and share something that we haven't seen before."
On why they choose people who don't have a husband, children, etc. "If you remember back to season one of The Real Housewives of Orange County, Jo de la Rosa was dating Slade, she was single and it was her aspiration to be a housewife and that's why she was on and she really wanted to be a housewife. And then Real housewives of New York came second. Bethenny was single, but she very much wanted to be a housewife. So, I think that's how that started."
So housewives is just the "name"? "I think Housewives is the name and I think it's a little bit of a wink because housewives is an old fashion term and we're turning it on it's head because a housewife now, it's a modern woman and it's something totally different."
Nene asks if there's a formula to casting – like with her she's married to an older man and she thinks there's a woman married to an older man on each show and on every show there's a single girl and an outspoken one. "No, but I understand what you're saying. There's no slot like 'oh we have to fill the person who's married to the older guy' but it is interesting how that's worked out. "
Do you have to have money to be a housewife? Probably, yes. You have to have a lifestyle. Nene says "whether you're going broke or not. bankruptcy or not you need a lifestyle." Andy says "we've had too many of that".
Nene says, "when we first started this housewives thing, there was not a lot of shows out there called Housewives, now there's wives this, wives that. how do you feel about that?" Andy tries to the high road but then admits he's a shady tree. "I think the PC thing is like 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…. and then I think it's like a bunch of second rate shitty ripoff shows. I've never seen any of the shows, by the way."
TELL US – DO YOU THINK NENE TRULY DIDN'T KNOW ANDY CALLED THE SHOTS? WHICH CAST MEMBER DO YOU THINK IS ANDY'S FAVORITE?
Photo Credit: C..Smith/ WENN.com
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